Luke 4:27, commentary and pictures

The verse states the historical fact that in the days of Elisha many in Israel suffered with leprosy yet only Naaman the Syrian was made clean. Jesus spoke it in the synagogue at Nazareth in His first sermon there announcing Himself as the Anointed One sent to bring salvation to His own people. Israel's lepers were passed by because unbelief closed the door against good, for they slighted their privileges, turned from God and rejected His light and messengers so He could not show His power for them. Naaman, though a heathen Syrian nobleman, lived faithfully by the light he had, felt his need and was willing to receive instruction, so he was counted more worthy and more righteous than those in Israel who despised their advantages, and he was both healed and brought to know the true God. God's mercy is therefore not confined to Israel but is given to Gentiles and outsiders who appreciate His favors and follow the light from heaven, for standing with Him depends not on how much light is received but on whether it is followed.

Setting at Nazareth

Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. The saying was spoken in the synagogue at Nazareth as part of Christ's first sermon there, in which He announced Himself as the Anointed One and announced His mission to offer salvation to His own people. At first the hearers wondered at His gracious words and felt the Spirit's influence and witness upon them. When He spoke words that cut across their ideas and exposed their lack of piety and loyalty and their spiritual condition, unbelief turned that first response into anger.

Jesus used Naaman together with the foreign widow in Elijah's time to answer those who doubted Him, demanded signs for their own benefit, and wanted Him to prove His claims with miracles. By these examples He showed that God's favors and blessings are not secured by belonging to Israel and that hard-hearted rejecters cut themselves off while receivers of given light in faith may be favored with evidence of His power. His work at that time was confined to a small circumference in Palestine among the Jewish nation and was not extended to the surrounding heathen nations. The heathen nations were not prepared for His work, and giving His time to their conversion would have closed the door by which He could bear His message to the Jewish nation, against whom prejudice was already strong even within so limited a work.

In that setting His work is described as bringing comfort, restoration, and reproof. After His unfavorable reception He made no stay in Nazareth, where He had spent His youth and early manhood. He left to continue to Galilee and to other places, to seek more fruitful fields and to preach to ears that would listen and hearts that would receive His message.

Why Israel Missed Blessing

The many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha were passed over and left uncleansed because their unbelief closed the door of good to them and left them unwilling to receive God's power. Their unbelief shut them off from the good God could have done for them, and kept Him from showing His power for them and displaying it among them. In contrast Naaman's faith stands as an object lesson for all who claim to serve God, for God works for those who appreciate His favors and respond to the light given them from heaven. Those who act on the light they have in faith become recipients of His power, and people with little light who follow it sincerely may receive greater favor than those with much light whose lives contradict their claims.

Their unbelief was disregard and misuse of God-given privileges, turning from God and rejecting the light, so that God could not display His power for them. God's chosen people had become unbelieving and rebellious, rejecting God's truth and rejecting the light, and sacrificing principle for convenience and worldly honor. When His professed people so turn from Him, religious privilege does not secure His favor, and He may turn from their unbelief and rebellion to show Himself to people in heathen lands who have not rejected the light but lived up to what they had.

Those with greater light had become proud and self-sufficient, and their lives contradicted their profession of godliness and their claims to serve God. God's blessings are received by those who value the light given to them, not by those whose greater light makes them proud and self-sufficient while they live unrighteously and in unbelief. This exposed hypocrisy, including rejection of Jesus because He came in humble circumstances and in humility and poverty rather than with wealth, honor, and power.

Hard-hearted people who reject God's warnings cut themselves off from blessing, while God's power was displayed through the prophets among people who had faith. Blessings are not secured by belonging to Israel, but those who receive in faith the light given to them may be favored with evidence of God's power, answering those who doubt and demand signs for their own benefit. Rejecting the message the Lord sends is not rejecting it because it is error, but following the path of unbelief from blindness smitten by the infatuation of the ruler of the powers of darkness, closing eyes so as not to see and ears so as not to hear and darkening the understanding so as not to be convinced of the manifestations of the Spirit of God.

Why Naaman Received Blessing

Naaman was a Syrian, a heathen and a nobleman, yet he was true to his convictions of right, lived faithfully according to the light he had, and acted on it. Though a heathen, he lived up to the light he had rather than disregarding it, and his faithfulness in little prepared him for greater blessing. He felt his need of help, recognized his need, and was open to instruction and willing to receive divine instruction, opening his heart where others closed theirs.

Because he so responded, he was in God's sight more worthy of blessing and more ready to receive God's favor than the afflicted in Israel who slighted and despised their God-given privileges. He is counted more righteous than God's chosen people who had turned from God and rejected the light, sacrificing principle for convenience and worldly honor. God's blessings are thus received by those who value and follow the light given to them, not by those whose greater light makes them proud and self-sufficient.

He was cleansed from leprosy and was also enlightened in divine truth, receiving both healing and divine truth together. His healing brought him to know the true God. His cleansing illustrates that people able to receive God's word in faith become recipients of His power, while prophets do not work among those hardened in unbelief.

Blessing Beyond Israel

In Elisha's time many lepers lived in Israel, yet none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian, showing that God's favor, mercy, help and blessing were not limited to Israel and were not confined to Israel but could be given to Gentiles and to people outside the nation and in heathen lands. Like the foreign widow in Elijah's time who received help while Israelites did not, Naaman received help while Israelites did not, rebuking the belief that the Jews were specially favored. His words exposed unbelief and anger at the thought that a foreigner had been favored, and his Jewish hearers resented this and rejected his words.

Naaman's faith was held up as an object lesson for all who claim to serve God, that God works for those who appreciate His favors and respond to the light given them from heaven. Naaman was a heathen nobleman who was true to his convictions of right, felt his need of help, lived faithfully according to the light he had, recognized his need, and was open to instruction and divine instruction. Because he so responded, he was in God's sight more worthy of blessing than the afflicted in Israel who slighted and despised their God-given privileges, and his cleansing brought healing and enlightenment in divine truth and knowledge of the true God.

Standing before God depends not on how much light a person has received, but on whether that light is followed. Those who act on the light they have may receive God's favor, while people with greater light and claims to godliness are not favored when their lives contradict their profession, and people with little light who follow it sincerely may receive greater favor than those with much light whose lives contradict their claims to godliness. Their unbelief and misuse of their privileges kept God from showing His power for them and left them unwilling to receive God's power, while Naaman though a heathen was faithful to the light he had and received healing and divine truth.

God's favor is not secured by belonging to Israel or by religious privilege. Rejecting God's light can leave His professed people without the blessing given to a foreigner who responds to it, for religious privilege does not secure God's favor when people turn from Him, and God may work among those who have not rejected the light when His professed people do. People outside Israel who lived up to the light they had could be counted more righteous than Israelites who rejected God's truth and sacrificed principle for convenience and worldly honor, while God's chosen people were unbelieving and rebellious. Hard-hearted people who reject God's warnings cut themselves off from blessing, while those who receive in faith the light given to them may be favored with evidence of God's power.

The cleansing of the Syrian alone challenged national pride, self-righteousness, and expectations of a Messiah who would serve national interests, making clear that the hearers were no more favored by heaven than the Gentiles. It rebuked the belief that the Jews were specially favored, and the reference to blessings given to Gentiles stirred national pride so that the people rejected Him and tried to kill Him. Though they thought they loved Him, they tried to kill Him when His words challenged their sense of exclusive favor, and their rejection of this truth led them to reject Jesus.

The example exposed hypocrisy and unbelief, for God favored a heathen who responded faithfully to the light he had over Israelites who had greater light but lived unrighteously and in unbelief. It served as a rebuke to those who scorned Jesus and refused to believe that God's power could be at work through Him in humility and poverty, since they rejected Him because He came in humble circumstances rather than with wealth, honor, and power. The Jewish people did not receive their Lord because truth did not languish on His tongue and because He did not receive His instruction from the religious teachers of the nation, though He had perfect knowledge of the Jewish economy as represented in the Scriptures, while God's power was displayed through the prophets among people who had faith and unbelieving, hard-hearted people rejected their message.

Rage and Rejection

The mention of blessing given to Gentiles cut against national pride and laid bare the hearers' lack of piety and loyalty to God and their true spiritual condition, and that exposure helped turn their first favorable response to gracious words into anger. Doubt had already led toward unbelief, and when pointed words crossed their ideas the change became rage and a resolve to kill. In their eyes the claim that they were no more favored by heaven than Gentiles was intolerable.

They became so enraged that they drove Him out of the synagogue, tore Him from His elevated position as speaker, and hurried Him to the eminence on which their city was built to cast Him down headlong from a precipice or cliff. They would have killed Him and thrown Him down, ready to destroy the One whose voice they sought to silence entirely. Familiarity with His family was used to turn them against Him despite the witness of the Holy Spirit.

He was saved only because heavenly angels guarded Him and divine power and agencies hid Him, so He passed through them unharmed. The mob pushed Him hither and thither while quarreling among themselves how to stop His voice entirely, then lost sight of Him when He was gone they knew not whither. His mission was not yet finished, and God protected Him from the precipice to which their rejection had brought Him.

That rejection fulfills that no prophet is accepted in his own country and a prophet has no honor in his own country. It comes from the natural reluctance to acknowledge wonderfully admirable development in one who lived unostentatiously in their midst and was intimately known from childhood, while the same persons may become wildly excited over a stranger and an adventurer. He came unto His own and His own received Him not, for though they thought they loved Him, prejudice and hatred blinded their hearts so they stubbornly rejected the light and resisted Him whom they had come to save. They did not receive their Lord because truth did not languish on His tongue and because He did not receive His instruction from the religious teachers of the nation, though He had perfect knowledge of the Jewish economy as represented in the Scriptures, and they remained unwilling even after witnessing His miracles and having time to reconsider.

That driving out began a life of persecution and insult in which, after three years of public labor in self-denial and disinterested benevolence and a life of purity, suffering and devotion, He was unable to reach hearts blinded by prejudice and hatred who stubbornly rejected the light. During that labor He healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb, fed the hungry and comforted the sorrowful, walked on the heaving sea and silenced it by a word, cast out devils, raised the dead, and held thousands by words of wisdom.

Warning and Application

The visit to Nazareth where Jesus announced Himself as the Anointed One first drew a favorable response to His gracious words, but admitting doubt led to unbelief, and when pointed remarks exposed the hearers' spiritual condition they became enraged and sought to kill Him. Unbelief drives away the Spirit of God and opens the way to Satan's influence, so the episode warns against admitting doubt. The men of Nazareth opened their hearts to unbelief and rejected Christ, showing how resistance to the light can turn a blessing into a stumbling block.

Christ's recalling that many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha and none was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian rebuked the unbelief of Nazareth and means no prophet is accepted in his own country. Rejecting the message the Lord sends is not rejecting it because it is error but following the path of unbelief followed by the men of Nazareth, from blindness smitten by the infatuation of the ruler of the powers of darkness, closing eyes so as not to see and ears so as not to hear and darkening the understanding so as not to be convinced of the manifestations of the Spirit of God. Such rejection stirs wrath against the messenger to thrust him out, and it is dangerous because it leads to calling the work of the Spirit of God the work of Satan.

God speaks through His delegated messengers, and to close the heart against Jesus is to reject Christ in the person of His messengers and to fall into bondage to Satan while claiming to be free. The refusal of the light Christ brought at Nazareth warns against rejecting messages of truth sent by God, for rejecting Christ's messengers is rejecting Christ and can leave people spiritually confused and under the control of evil. After a first rejection there can be a second call by the divine Messenger to accept the gracious light of truth that works for salvation, and to harden the heart then in prejudice and pride is final rejection. Those who have before them the example of the Jews rejecting Christ and His apostles are less excusable if they follow the same course of unbelief.

The warning that God's favor was not secured by belonging to Israel, so that rejecting God's light could leave His professed people without the blessing given to a foreigner who responded to it, also applied when church leaders' bitterness toward Paul obstructed his work among the Gentiles. As rejection of God's messenger deprived Israel of blessing, so envy and jealousy toward Paul hindered his work among the Gentiles and deprived the church of his ministry. God did not ordain that Paul's labor should end so soon and would have spared him longer had they accepted his calling, but He did not miraculously reverse or undo the consequences of their actions. The account of Christ's rejection by the people of Nazareth teaches teachers to examine their own practice, since neglecting the Word's lessons of eternal consequence leaves them unprepared to teach others.